Memories of a slaughter that casts shadow over the centuries

The earliest records of a Jewish presence in York show a community there from the early 1170s, and by 1190 it is thought, though not certain because so few documents survive from the period, that they numbered about 150. They are believed to have travelled from northern France to York via London or other principal administrative towns like Lincoln, following the Norman Conquest. They were drawn to centres of economic growth, often working as money-lenders, employment that was discouraged among Christians by the Church.

The Crown took a great interest in England's Jews and heavily taxed their earnings. There is evidence that some prospered in York in the late 13th century and lived in the desirable Coney Street area within the city walls. Events were to prove that there was an uneasy relationship between Jews and Christians in the city, partly because England's heroes were busily fighting Crusades and wishing to claim the Holy Land for Christianity.

The bloodbath of March 1290 was not the first outbreak of violence against Jews in England. In 1189, Richard I was crowned in London and crowds from around the country travelled to witness the ceremony. No-one knows why, says York University medievalist Sarah Rees Jones, but Christians in the crowd started to attack Jews and tried to force them to convert to Christianity. Among them was one of York's leading Jews, a man called Benedict.

"Benedict died of his wounds," says Dr Rees Jones. "When news of this got back to York, riots broke out in the city. Benedict's house was attacked by locals and his wife and children were killed. Unrest continued, and eventually the Jewish community took refuge in the keep of the castle which stood on the site of what is now Clifford's Tower, which was built 60 years later.

"The castle was the centre of royal government in Yorkshire. The Sheriff was away, but the custodian was there and the frightened Jewish families thought they'd be safe under royal protection. A crowd of Christians gathered outside the castle, and there is an account of a hermit in the crowd who was preaching against the Jews being hit on the head and killed by a rock thrown from inside the keep.

"At that point, so the story goes, Jewish leaders said it would be better to commit suicide than face the alternative, and they set fire to the keep after cutting the children's throats... Not all of the Jewish people killed themselves, though, and those who left the keep, deciding to submit to conversion, were killed by the crowd." The events of that night were among various outbreaks of violence against Jews in England at that time, although few records survive.

There is no one specific cause for the massacre in York, says Dr Rees Jones, but religious antipathy and resentments felt by local landed families who were indebted to Jewish moneylenders were probably part of the mix. Some of the dead may have been buried in the old Jewish cemetery in the centre of York (site of a Sainsbury car park today), but no remains from that time were found during excavation.

Despite the horrors of 1190, there's evidence that Jewish migrants may have been back in York as soon as a dozen years later, but living in England became increasingly uncomfortable – first with steep taxation, then the Statute of Jewry forbidding usury, and the enforced wearing of a badge to denote who was Jewish, followed eventually by the Edict

of Expulsion of the Jews issued by Edward I in 1290. England was the first country in Europe to expel the Jews, and the Edict was not revoked for 350 years.

"We felt it was important to hold the conference because this is the first time we've focused closely on the massacre of 1190 since the anniversary of 1990," says Dr Rees Jones. "It was one of the most important events of medieval York and there has been a great deal of new academic work on it in the last 20 years.

"We'll be looking not just at the massacre, but the wider context, covering around a century. As with all history, it's important to keep looking back and trying to understand events of the past, because if you can't understand the past you can't understand the present and the future."